/lit/ - Literature

learn the fundamentals and how to critique yourself in a meaningful manner and how you will be able to look at writing in the same way as learning an instrument

>>19472365
writing is like producing films. the technicalities have nothing to do with the "art"

>>19472365
Just sit down every single day and write at least 500 words on any topic at all
The greatest authors and poets have all written millions of words before anything of theirs became recognized as remarkable. Ask yourself if you are truly writing for yourself or are you writing for the recognition and status of being a well-known author. As the other anon said, treat your writing like an instrument - practice every day, try new styles and forms, get out of your comfort zone with different genres you normally wouldn't enjoy writing. Most importantly, don't quit your day job.

>>19472434
>don't quit your day job
ngmi

>>19472442
you are ngmi anyways, might as well stop trying

>>19472449
probably not, but I'd rather die chasing the dream than end up as lobotomized wagie with a girl"friend" and netflix subscription

>>19472460
>die chasing the dream
>lobotomized wagie with a girl"friend" and netflix subscription
these are the same thing

>>19472470
kek, yeah

>>19472460
Everyone wants to read the words of a man with zero life experience or any type of humility.

>>19472365
I proved that meme wrong. It was originally addressed to me. God that was so long ago.

Anyways op you suck. Maybe a lot of writers do as well. Just because you suck it doesn't mean everyone else sucks. I'm very naturally good at poems but I've been writing raps for years.
Prose I sucked at but I'm getting better. It took a week of writing very shitty flash fiction for a week then I got my style. My "writing style", i.e. syntax, became pretty typical too very quickly.

>>19472489
post raps

>>19472478
I've had a taste of the n*rmie lifestyle (office job and whore gf). Not only it's a terminal lifetrap, but the people there don't have any interesting experience themselves, they're just precoded NPC following social expectations and trending narratives. Utter waste of time and life.

>>19472496
Sugma Ligma, Uh Huh
Ligma Sugma, Nig-guh
Bitches ain't shit so I keep em out the choir
Liars talking trash had to burn em with da lighta
You're independently ignorant, ya misinformed siyah
Gunnin' down your hopes of ever making it big
You'll be sitting at a desk for 10 years and never have a kid
That whole time you just wasted thinking of a reply
Ask yourself the question "why do I even try?"

>>19472516
>Not only it's a terminal lifetrap, but the people there don't have any interesting experience themselves, they're just precoded NPC following social expectations and trending narratives. Utter waste of time and life.
said the man on /lit/

>>19472531
Based

>>19472553
yes

>>19472365
If your taste is way more developed, you will hate all of your writing basically indefinitely, until you can finally bring your writing skill to par with your taste. Also, if you're an oversocialised retard zoomer who's constantly paranoid about being "cringe", you will be policing yourself non-stop and will therefore be completely creatively crippled and remain incapable of producing anything with the slightest bit of artistic merit. If the latter is the issue, do some soul searching and stop being a neurotic sperg.
You're welcome.
>>19472442
TBF that anon probably has a point because most NEET retards never use their free time for anything other than NEET retard shit.
>>19472516
>this man has gone beyond the abyss of "realist" fiction
Good job, keep going and find something meaningful to say.
>>19472489
>"I've been writing raps for years"
(pic rel)

>>19472599
They're pretty good lol I actually got in trouble for them in the military because they were hot

>>19472609
What? Your raps? Bro it's rap lol.

>>19472365
>Why is writing so hard?
Because you refuse to acknowledge the vast "sea of technicalities" which make up the foundation of good prose and storytelling.

Go ahead and look up any writer who has a reputation for exceptional prose: Nabokov, Steinbeck, Bellow, and Fitzgerald etc. etc. etc. You'll notice they all have a lot in common:
>they also write structured poetry
>they speak multiple languages
>they have advanced degrees in English
Usually at least two out of three of these are true. If it is not immediately obvious what advantages these skills would lend to your ability to write "poetic" prose, then you are as hopeless as a toddler who wishes to sail the pacific.

If you look at the writers who are classified as competent-but-unexceptional prose stylists (Orwell, Jack London, HG Wells) you'll find they typically have a background in journalism. Again, the benefits of this type of education are immediately apparent to any experienced reader.

If you look at the very worst writers: F Gardner, Jason Bryan, KDP hacks, wannabes in writing groups, etc. etc. you'll notice they have an extreme fixation on the "artistic expression" aspect of writing. They tend to believe that editing/revising is a simple process of waiting six weeks and then reshuffling their words or finding new ones and poo-poo anyone who insinuates that any "real" writer would waste time with fancy nonsense like symbolism. They tend to insist that the curtains were blue.

So I guess your problem isn't so much the ineffability of quality prose so much as an utter lack of personal humility. You encountered a question which could have been answered with an afternoon on wikipedia, and which I believe you would have answered for yourself already if you had any genuine love for the craft, and instead of doing the slightest bit of research you assumed that the answer must lie somewhere inside of your own experience. You formed an idiotic theory of the world which came nowhere close to offering a logical solution to the question you had and went with that because it was easier than admitting you're ignorant and doing the work necessary to fix your shortcomings.

>>19472531
thank you anon

>>19473104
good post

>>19472365
Read Aristotle's Poetics until you get it.

>>19473104
I'm pretty sure that it's all luck and knowing someone in the publishing industry.

>>19473104
>writer who has a reputation for exceptional prose
>Steinbeck
lol no
all those other writers fit the bill, but instead of Steinbeck I would mention Joyce (spoke/knew multiple languages, wrote some poetry, but didn't have an english degree), Faulkner (wrote poetry, but only spoke one language and didn't have an english degree), Conrad (spoke multiple languages, but didn't write poetry and didn't have an english degree), and Melville (wrote poetry, but didn't speak multiple languages and didn't have an english degree)

Ah yes, that's why there are degrees focused on music/film/art but none for writing! You simply can't learn how to write, it's too vague and theoretical...

I doubt you'll go to school so here are some tips:

Read every single day and actually think about what the fuck you are reading. Take notes. Ask yourself why different authors do what they are doing. What do good authors have in common? What do bad authors have in common? I mean this in their writing styles, their qualifications, their lifestyles, and their ideologies. Don't just read for fun, read with the intention of learning.

Also, go out and experience things. You could study for 16 hours every single day, but if you're not living a life and seeing things, what in the hell are you going to write about? Go do things at least once a week. Go to a bar and actually meet people, buy a homeless man lunch and see what he has to say about his life, go on a date, fall in love, get your heart broken. Yes, I know, you don't want to be a nOrMiE and go to a bar. Alright well go do something that you'd enjoy doing. It can literally be anything, just don't sit inside every day and actually do something with your life or else your writing will be boring trash.

Finally, get out of this mindset that writing is too theoretical to see improvement or whatever the hell it is you think. I guarantee you that if you do what I said, and write every single day for a year, you will be able to see the differences with your first piece compared to your last.

>B-b-but I can't read and write every single day!

Okay so do it 3 days a week minimum. Remember that consistency isn't enough though, you also have to be intentional. With these two values, you will improve at anything you can think of.

remember the guy who bragged about studying rhetorical figures?